Hey Y’all! Welcome to Down-home-Delish! My name is Delaine and I am happy you decided to stop in and visit for a bit. Grab a glass of iced tea (or coffee) and let me share with you the thought behind this whole thing.

I come from a family who has had many great cooks over the years and a ton of recipes. Unfortunately, they weren’t all recorded and have only been verbally communicated through the years. The purpose of this blog is to celebrate treasured family recipes that have been handed down year after year as well as taste and test new additions that have more recently entered the food world. You will mainly find sweets from me, but I also have to feed a family of 5 so I will sprinkle in some savory and healthy selections as we go along.

My food journey began early in life at both of my grandparent’s kitchens in Northeast Georgia. In these kitchens, nothing was really measured, but every delicious recipe that came out of those kitchens had a story that traveled alongside it. My sister and I spent countless hours watching and “helping” both grandmas with their delicacies. Even though their cooking styles and recipe selections were vastly different, they shared the common bond of being “Southern”. Through the cooking process, they would whisper their secrets that made each dish special. I quickly learned that the taste of the recipe went far beyond the sum of the ingredients. I’ve spent some time over the years translating the verbal recipe increments such as a “touch” of this and a “smidge” of that into actual measurements that others can repeat.

Fast forward a bit and travel up North to the windy city (suburbs) of Chicago where I now reside. I have a husband of almost 20 years, three terrific teen boys (yes, I did say teen), and a Japanese Chin named Snowball. Needless to say, it is a much different food ecosystem up here than what I grew up with in Georgia. (We didn’t even get a Chinese restaurant until I was in college!) But, the one thing that has remained the same is when I make these hand-me-down recipes of years past, I can still hear my grandma’s whispering their secrets and tips right alongside me as I make them.

I am hoping that you will enjoy my family recipes (and stories), be inspired to create something different, and share in the collective recipe experiences from all over.

More about me: When I’m not in the kitchen, I enjoy reading, gardening, watching Netflix, and a moderate amount of exercise.